Gordon can focus on Sixth Man repeat
PHOENIX — With Chris Paul’s return to the starting lineup, Eric Gordon was back in his role coming off the bench in plenty of time to potentially be eligible to repeat as the NBA Sixth Man of the Year.
To be eligible, a player must come off the bench in more games than he starts. Now that he is not starting, Gordon could become a candidate to repeat as the Six Man award winner.
“Yeah, I definitely have my chance,” Gordon said. “It’s all about this team being successful and me continuing to play the way I am. Then, I’ll definitely have that chance.”
Only two players — Detlef Schrempf in the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons and Kevin McHale in the 1983-84 and 1984-85 seasons — have repeated as winners of the Sixth Man of the Year award that began with the 1982-83 season.
Gordon, who scored 13 points in Thursday night’s rout of the Suns, had been averaging 22.1 points per game this season. He scored 24 off the bench in the season opener before Paul went out for 14 games.
“It’s going to go back to what we did in the preseason, trying to get more and more open shots,” Gordon said. “My mentality doesn’t change as far as being in attack mode all the time and doing what it takes to help this team win.”
D’Antoni, Triano go way back
Though it might have come as a surprise when the Suns fired Earl Watson as head coach three games into the season, the choice as the interim head coach was no surprise, especially to Mike D’Antoni.
Jay Triano is wellknown around the league from his seasons as the Toronto Raptors’ coach, several assistant coaching positions and as the twotime (and current) Canadian national team coach. He also spent four years as an assistant with the USA Basketball senior national team when D’Antoni was also an assistant.
“Jay will do a good job,” D’Antoni said. “He’s always done a good job. We were together four years with the Olympic team. And obviously, when he was the head coach in Toronto, I got to know him. He’s good, real good.”
Illness creates wrinkle in plans
Though guard/forward Luc Mbah a Moute was ill Thursday and unavailable, Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said he was not tempted to increase Chris Paul’s playing time for health reasons. His own.
“You might see Jason (Biles), our trainer, tackle me,” D’Antoni said of the threat should he play Paul more than planned. “It might be on ESPN tomorrow with him on my back, so we’ll see.
“The biggest thing I thought was with Chris coming back we could take minutes off other guys. That plan went up in smoke.”
D’Antoni also plans to keep Paul, who had not played since the season opener, to about 20 minutes Saturday at Memphis. He did plan, especially with Mbah a Moute out, to always have Paul on the floor when James Harden was not.“Especially with Luc now out, he has to run the second team,” D’Antoni said.